Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000

RAMANAM
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen.

Countrymen,

ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT

We have pointed out that a nation arises around its successful Army (modernly, Armed Forces).  We have not explored the question: Around what does a nation’s successful Army arise?

The answer is, around The Church — or its otherwise-named colleague who hears a different Name of God — as a New Being, a Para-Ousia of The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth and God.  I am a Christian conducting this essay in Christian terms of art.  And here the word Army means Armed Forces.

The Army arises from The Church.  And not just the visible churches but the invisible Church, the Spiritual Community of creatures who confesses Jesus the Christ as the saving Power of God.

The Church is the world-embracing Spiritual Community of creatures who exist in the Divine Power (Logos/Reason) named Jesus the Christ and acknowledge allegiance to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Practically speaking, the Church is where the Nicene Creed is professed, the Sacraments duly administered, and The Gospel truly preached [and the music of J. S. Bach heard at all].

The Army is a soteriological phenomenon
in the economy of salvation.

So, first there is God.  Then there is the Logos (Jesus the Christ) of God.  Then there is the Spiritual Community (The Church) joined to that Logos.  Then there is the Army thrown into existence by that Spiritual Community.  Then there is the nation thrown and brought into existence by that Army.

Then there is the wealth — land, families, constitution — thrown into existence and enumerated as that nation’s specificity.  Then there are the nation’s assets of statecraft — diplomacy, finance, war-fighting — thrown into existence by and made available for use as return on investment of that wealth.  Then there is the nation’s Telos or Purpose in History thrown forward and upward — or backward and downward — by that nation’s statecraft.  Then there is a nation’s Telos or Purpose in History thrown at the Feet of God in hopes of Emerging in Him.

God -> Jesus the Christ -> The Church -> The Army -> The Nation ->
The Wealth -> The Assets Of Statecraft -> Purpose in History -> Emerging in God

Does this sound circular?  It is not.  What emerges in God is more than what He throws into existence.  It has been through existence, tried, tested, trued.  What emerges in God is not merely dreaming innocence (Garden of Eden) as it was before The Fall.  It has undergone The Fall and then the build, the sad but fruitful labor to regain what was lost but more even than that.  For what emerges in God is matured innocence, awake innocence, innocence chastened and enjoyed because it has been sought and even to some extent earned (though not ultimately earned, ultimately gifted).

The Talent has been put to use and earned increase of itself.  The salvation (from defeat) and restoration (to strength) of man, creatures and indeed the universe is a gain in their proximity to pleasure, true pleasure, and power, not a recapitulation of their former conditions of dreaming innocence and existential struggle.  They are removed from the Land of Sadness and jumped over the Garden of Eden, never to return to either.

Life and history are not circular.  They gain strength and pleasure through work and reward and by gift.  They consummate in God by being in Christ.

The ripe fruit resembles the seed and the tree — and even contains a seed or more — yet it comprises more than either.  It has undergone stresses of contingency, cultivation, and weather to distill as and in itself the essence of the career of its lineage.  There is circularity in nature and soteriology.  However, who looks at phenomenology and sees ultimate circularity looks in-carefully.

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

— George Gordon, Lord Byron

AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA